UK Politics: National shortage of incompetence pads

[Werthead]

In other news, it's looking pretty close but it appears that Britain has overtaken Sweden to achieve the highest deaths-per-million in the whole world. That's quite an achievement, albeit not one necessarily to boast about.

The good news is that all European countries (bar Russia) are trending downwards at the moment, so although we have gained the #1 spot it's still lower than it was a few weeks ago. Brazil looks like it's going to storm past us quite soon as well, and possibly the United States to follow.

[williamjm]

5 minutes ago, Werthead said:

In other news, it's looking pretty close but it appears that Britain has overtaken Sweden to achieve the highest deaths-per-million in the whole world. That's quite an achievement, albeit not one necessarily to boast about.

The good news is that all European countries (bar Russia) are trending downwards at the moment, so although we have gained the #1 spot it's still lower than it was a few weeks ago. Brazil looks like it's going to storm past us quite soon as well, and possibly the United States to follow.

On a similar note I was looking at https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps earlier. For the latest week the only country they track to still have 'extremely high' excess deaths is England. Sweden, Belgium and Scotland are the other countries to still have excess deaths (Wales and Northern Ireland were below the typical number of deaths in that week). The positive news is that the excess deaths have come down significantly from the height of the outbreak, but they're still painfully high.

[karaddin]

I'm sure that if we were talking about a common Briton potentially being charged with an offense related to dangerous driving that we'd have just as robust a defense of them, and how there is no need to enforce the laws, right? Or poor people of colour that receive fines for breaching lockdown rules? (I don't actually know if clearly racist applications of fines has been a thing in the UK, but it very much has in Aus)

Obviously the testing his eyes excuse is such transparent bullshit its meant to be an insult to the public and the idea of oversight, but if he's going to use something that would be a criminal offense for anyone else as his excuse for breaching a different law, thereby confessing to the driving related criminal offense, then he should be charged with it. Because the law is meant to apply to everyone.

[A wilding]

Of course Cummings could have got tested. All the other people in the mini outbreak in Downing Street got themselves tested, even those like Hancock who weren't seriously ill.

One point that I had not picked up on before: the day he drove to a beauty spot and went for a walk with his wife and child "to test his eyesight" just happened to be his wife's birthday.

But, having worked through is self justifications in detail, perhaps the biggest one for me is this; by his own account he rushed home from Downing Street because his wife was seriously ill with the Covid-19 symptoms and he needed to look after her. After doing so for a couple of hours he then apparently went back to work at Downing Street!

[mormont]

Ah yes, but you see Dominic has a really important job. And it's not as if he could do that job from home. I mean, what sort of sorcery could allow you to attend meetings when you're not physically in the place they're being held?

[BigFatCoward]

The dominos have started to fall, junior minister Douglass Ross (who I have never heard of) has quit.

[A wilding]

 

38 minutes ago, mormont said:

Ah yes, but you see Dominic has a really important job. And it's not as if he could do that job from home. I mean, what sort of sorcery could allow you to attend meetings when you're not physically in the place they're being held?

I find the level of incompetence a bit sad (though clearly laced with a large dose of "the rules don't apply to maverik me" in Cummings case).

My current employer was planning and trialling remote working from at least the beginning of March. In mid March we got a message one evening that the offices were closed and to stay at home from then on. And with only a few hiccups, it has worked. Many other companies did pretty much the same. While a government is obviously a bit more complex than the average company, you would imagine something would have been arranged for key people like Cummings.

[Which Tyler]

Right - letter to MP time. I know I'm forgetting something, but can't think what it is right now - any ideas?

Dear Mr Robertson

 

I am writing to you to express my deep concern around Mr Cummings, and some of the arguments put forward in defence of his actions. For clarity, I’ll bullet point my questions, rather than lengthy prose.

 

1.      If Mr Cummings was “just being a good parent” – does that mean that all those parents who followed the government’s instructions are bad parents?

 

2.      When exactly did following your instincts allow one to break the law with impunity?

 

3.      When exactly did dangerous driving become the standard form of eye test – as opposed to, for example, the ability to read a number plate at 75 feet, or a simple Snellen chart, easily found, with instructions, from all good search engines.

 

4.      This same question goes for Mr Gove, who, this morning, has claimed to use the same tactic to test his eyes.

 

5.      Given the decision to break the law twice in order to test his eyesight (dangerous driving and breaking self-isolation whilst symptomatic) – why would anyone who feels themselves to be dangerous to drive, then take their child to a beauty spot as part of that eye test?

 

6.      Is such child endangerment another indication of being a good parent?

 

7.      Given that Ms Wakefield has family living just a couple of streets away from their London home – why were they not considered good enough as childcare option?

 

8.      Were none of Mr Cummings’ family capable of driving? To come and collect the child in the event of necessity?

 

9.      When Mr Cummings first drove to Durham, could we please have confirmation on whether he was strongly symptomatic, and thus unsafe to drive; or asymptomatic or mildly so, thus rendering the trip unnecessary in the first place.

 

10.  Given that both Mr Cummings and Mr Gove have publicly admitted having broken the law (dangerous driving) do you think that a public inquiry, or a CPS inquiry would be the more appropriate.

 

11.  It is obviously imperative that Mr Cummings should resign or be fired – do you feel that this should also be the case for some of those who have defended his actions? Including those who have defended it by claiming to have broken the law themselves?

 

Thank you

[Derfel Cadarn]

The story’s changed so much, when Cummings writes his autobiography, I wonder if this chapter will be a Choose Your Own Adventure?

[Which Tyler]

I slipped and fell into my car, along with my wife and child; and was rendered helpless as the gear stick... became unavailable, however much I squirmed. It was at that point that the car engine turned on by itself, and I accidentally drove 250 miles to Durham.

 

[Pebble thats Stubby]

16 minutes ago, Which Tyler said:

Right - letter to MP time. I know I'm forgetting something, but can't think what it is right now - any ideas?

 

 

Did Cummings knowenly return to his place of work while infectious thus potentially spreading Covid to other people critically important to the running of the country, just because he felt a bit better?  Also could he have not worked remotely from home instead. 

[mormont]

22 minutes ago, Which Tyler said:

Right - letter to MP time. I know I'm forgetting something, but can't think what it is right now - any ideas?

 

 

How can the government now credibly enforce lockdown rules when they have broadened the definition of 'reasonable excuse' to the point of defending all of Mr Cummings' behaviour as falling within that definition? What might now not be considered a 'reasonable excuse' for ignoring lockdown advice?

[polishgenius]

27 minutes ago, Which Tyler said:

Right - letter to MP time. I know I'm forgetting something, but can't think what it is right now - any ideas?

 

 

 

What date did Mr Cummings travel to Barnard Castle?

Follow up question: when is Mary Wakefield's birthday?

[Which Tyler]

10 minutes ago, mormont said:

How can the government now credibly enforce lockdown rules when they have broadened the definition of 'reasonable excuse' to the point of defending all of Mr Cummings' behaviour as falling within that definition? What might now not be considered a 'reasonable excuse' for ignoring lockdown advice?

I like that one - I'll also add "can all those who’ve been fined or otherwise sanctioned for breaking lockdown, expect the be reimbursed their fine, and receive an official apology and defence from the Prime Minister?"

[Liffguard]

13 minutes ago, mormont said:

How can the government now credibly enforce lockdown rules when they have broadened the definition of 'reasonable excuse' to the point of defending all of Mr Cummings' behaviour as falling within that definition? What might now not be considered a 'reasonable excuse' for ignoring lockdown advice?

Am I too cynical in thinking this might be a desired outcome for the government? Weakening public support for and compliance with lockdown as a precursor for easing it, and then if infection rates increase again, they can shift blame to public non-compliance as the culprit? Not suggesting that this whole scenario was deliberately set up with that in mind, just that I wouldn't put it past them to opportunistically make use of it to shift responsibility.

[Gaston de Foix]

45 minutes ago, mormont said:

How can the government now credibly enforce lockdown rules when they have broadened the definition of 'reasonable excuse' to the point of defending all of Mr Cummings' behaviour as falling within that definition? What might now not be considered a 'reasonable excuse' for ignoring lockdown advice?

Now that Dom has breached them, the lockdown rules are no longer needed.  In fact they were never needed in the first place.  Oceania was at war with Eastasia.  Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.  Look there, shiny object!  Michael Gove also drives to test his eyesight despite failing his driving test 7 times.  Did you know Gove was a terrible driver?  Did you know he read the latest volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson in 11 hours as soon as it was published?  Isn't Michael clever? And oh so polite, if lying and backstabbing can be excused as couth behaviour. 

[Maltaran]

2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

The dominos have started to fall, junior minister Douglass Ross (who I have never heard of) has quit.

There is speculation on Twitter that none of the Scottish Tory MPs are willing to be his replacement.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

I mean, the drive to that beauty spot on his wife's birthday to test his eye sight was obviously the big fuck you, what you gonna do about it message. Everybody could see it for what it was, well, save for HoI obviously, who apparently thought Cummings explanation perfectly logical adn reasonable - which tells you all you need to know. But let's just move on before this turns into a post on HoI to test my eye sight.

I said it yesterday, and I will say it again. The sad/funny bit (depending where you are) is, that Classic Dom is supposedly the brain/mastermind behind HMG. One would suspect that such a bright mind would be capable of crafting better lies. But alas, he's still two letters away from being Cunnings. That Labour was not able to beat that, is still an indictment for Labour under Corbyn. Johnson was rumoredly back in his fridge, while his hair- and faceless unelected official delivered this Trumpian press conference. I would have loved to see the reaction and facial expression of the remaining sane Tories like Clarke and Heseltine, or even Major to that deranged circus yesterday. I guess an unfiltered reaction might have been very entertaining, indeed. I wonder whether classic Dom wrote that statement himself, or if he had a  speechwriter. If so, what did that poor creature think. You know the proverb, put a thousand monkeys, behind a thousand typewriters wait for a thousand years, and one of them might come up with a Shakespearean drama. I think this was more like, give one monkey one line of Gove's blow stash, wait for five minutes, remove the dead monkeys corpse and check what he wrote with his own fecal matter on the wall. It was just so bizarre on so many levels.

[Gaston de Foix]

24 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

There is speculation on Twitter that none of the Scottish Tory MPs are willing to be his replacement.

Doubt it.  The Tories are driven always by political advantage.  Virtually every junior minister sees themselves as PM.  Nobody of import will resign and somebody will step up.  

[DaveSumm]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

The sad/funny bit (depending where you are) is, that Classic Dom is supposedly the brain/mastermind behind HMG. One would suspect that such a bright mind would be capable of crafting better lies.

We can only judge the quality of the lies once we know the outcome. Maybe they’re exactly as plausible as necessary. What if the story runs out of steam once there’s no more information to be gleaned, nobody resigns, everyone gradually forgets about it, Dom gets back to his day job of winning elections, and the Tories win again in 2024. Tell me that isn’t an entirely likely scenario.